After Hugo Boss stopped showing at Berlin Fashion Week last year, German designer Dorothee Schumacher became the most established designer presenting in a city known for cheap apartments filled with budding creative types.

With around 40 stores in the United States now selling her label, celebrities including January Jones, Kerry Washington, Julia Louis Dreyfus and Olivia Wilde have recently been spotted sporting her powerfully feminine designs.

Speakeasy met with Schumacher backstage before her Thursday show to discuss her punk-meets-preppy Fall/Winter 2014 collection.

Speakeasy: You just said your collection was inspired by the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith’s former partner. Can you explain how, exactly?

Dorothee Schumacher: He had this broken beauty. His art had all these strong colors and patterns blocked together, and in this collection I wanted to pair strong materials and colors together in similar, unusual ways.

This grungy type of preppy look is quite a departure for you. Two of your most memorable collections have been 1970s Bianca Jagger-type frocks and neon, flirty pants and jackets inspired by 1990s workout gear. What made you want to employ such an edgier style today?

Women have come so far in expressing our femininity through style in the past several years that I think it’s important that this femininity see a balance, a pushback through harder-edged touches of style. We have earrings with jewels and masculine rivets, or chunky heels paired with jewels–I like the idea of mixing opulence with down-to-earth rock booties. We still used the same suppliers for the materials like Craquelure-Lacquer, wool, or metallic Jacquard, we just asked them early on to “rock it up” a bit.

Part of the reason you’ve grown in exposure in the US is that you cut out your middle-man and now sell directly to stores. But you’ve also grown in China. Did the Chinese women who are fans of your clothing have an influence on this collection?

We’ve expanded into China in the past few years and have noticed that many women there are the type of women who inspired this season: they’re looking to balance femininity and their country’s tradition with a harder, modern edge.

Read WSJ’s profile on Schumacher that traces the making of a dress from paper cutout to the catwalk //here//

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.